Figure 1.--.

Wulfila or Little Wolf was a Christian missionary to the still pagan Goths in the the 4th century. The Patriarch of Constantinople in the years befor the rise of the papacy consecrated Wulfila bishop of the Gothic Christians. Wulfila converted many Germanic tribesmen to the Arian form of Christianity. He also created the Gothic alphabet which he based on the Greek and Latin alphabets. Bishop Ulfila or Wulfila translation of the Bible is a landmark in German history and a major source document for linguists.

Bishop Wulfila (c311-c381)

Wulfila or Little Wolf was a Christian missionary to the still pagan Goths in the the 4th century. He worked more than 30 years in Lower Moesia. The Patriarch of Constantinople in the years befor the rise of the papacy consecrated Wulfila bishop of the Gothic Christians. Wulfila converted many Germanic tribesmen to the Arian form of Christianity. He also created the Gothic alphabet which he based on the Greek and Latin alphabets. Wulfila also translated the Bible into Gothic about 350 AD. This is the earliest translation of the Bible or any other book into a Germanic language. His Gothic alpahbet permitted the Germanic peoples to express ideas in writing for the first time.

The Wulfila Bible

Bishop Ulfila or Wulfila translation of the Bible is a landmark in German history and the beginning of German literature. It is also a major source document for linguists as it is the earliest written version of any Germanic language. He did not translate the book of Kings. Through time, many parts have been lost, but enough remains for linguists to have a clear insight in the oldest Teutonic language that has survived, and because it is the oldest, the present day Germanic [Teutonic] languages are always compared with East-Gothic.

The Lord's prayer at the front is in East-Gothic. The letters in red, are East-Gothic letters. At the bottom of each triple line are the Latin equivalents. Even though the language is 1650 years old, the writing is quite recognisable, although a flaw in my own Dutch translations is a possibility. The Lord's Prayer in all Teutonic languages starts with calling God, Father. Though East-Gothic has the word Fadar, Wulfila did not want to use it, because it referred too much to an earthly father and from that to an earthly kingdom. Those were not desirable references for the warlike Goths, and it has been suggested that those titles in connection with the omitted book of Kings would just stimulate the Goths in making more war. So he used the word Atta that has the double meaning of Father and Eternal.

Wulfila used the word Thiud instead of king, making reference to an earthly kingdom impossible. The English translator may have found it awkward to use the term God-dom, but that is what Wulfila meant to say, to emphasise its spiritual value. It is easy to see the difference between Kingdom and Thiudangardi. The latter word stands for God's Garden = Paradise. Equivalents for Thiud are Teutonic Good, Guth, God, Gott, and Greek and Latin Theos and Deos. Wodan, Odin, and Zeus are also equivalents. (Thiuth, Thiud, which is related to the God of God's Kingdom in the Bible, stands also for people or folk, as in Teuton, Tysk, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch.)

Atilla

Atilla the Hun in Wulfila's day threatened both the Goths and other Germanic tribes as well as the Romans. Wulfila and his translation of the Bible is the reason that we know the Hun chief by his name Attila. Ulfila borrowed Atta from the Greek word Athanasie meaning eternity. (Note ete in the word eternity). Unlike all other Germanic translations into Father, he substituted the word Atta, or Atha. (Frisian maybe an exception as it uses Heit, which was Haita during the 16th century.) The East Gothic word Fadar referred to an earthly father whereas Atta referred to an eternal father. The Hun leader was thus referred to by the Goths as Attila. The ending ila is a diminition so that they really called him "Little eternal father."

Hendrik Westera